The Rancher's Bride
by Silverblossom Jordan
Summary: In 1856 Isabella Swan has travelled from her home in Boston to the Wild West to meet the husband her father has chosen for her. Edward Cullen is the second son of a titled nobleman in England, since he has no obligations to the earldom, he goes his own way making his own fortune, until his father Carlisle Cullen the Earl and his old friend Charles Swan has other ideas.
1. Chapter 1

**Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyers no copyright infringement intended**

The wide open plains looked bereft and barren as the sun beat down unmercifully in the scorching July heat.

Dust bunnies and haze were all that could be seen as the wagon dragged on, the dray horse just about one minute past dead poor thing.

Isabella Swan pulled the straw hat from her head once more so she could fan herself for the one hundredth time.

Her nice traveling dress was a wet unladylike mess that stuck to her body in the most unseemly places. Her throat was parched and she was down to her last swallow of spring water.


	2. Chapter 2

She huffed to herself as old Sam her driver reassured her once more that the ranch was just up the way.

"Sam, you tell me that boldface lie one more time and I'll shoot you clean in the butt crack."

Ah, ah, ah, ah Missy, how many times I tell you not to be talking like dat, yo papi sure would take a switch to your hind parts iffin he hears you talkin like dat."

"Oh hush up Sam, it's too hot for your mess, now where is this fool place anyway, I think you don't know where we are."


	3. Chapter 3

"Do too, came out this way once before with yo papi and mama long before dey had you."

"Sam you old coot, you can't even remember last week, how you claim to remember almost twenty years ago?"

"I members just fine missy don't you be worrying none, now get yoself together so's you can meet yo man."

"This Cullen better not be anything like those fools back home or no matter what my dad says I'm not staying."

"You's staying Missy and dat's dat."

"Humph." I folded my arms and sealed my lips because there's no point in arguing with old Sam, he's an opinionated old bat and that's that.


	4. Chapter 4

Over the last hill when I'd been about to expire from heat and boredom we came across a most magnificent sight.

The house itself was a big old rambling monstrosity made in the Grecian style, but what caught the eye were the pastures beyond, the wildflower fields, the horses and cattle grazing in the distance.

There were barns and a silo out buildings and bunkhouses, my heart raced at the sheer beauty of it.

"Why Sam it's a paradise." My voice was barely above a whisper.

"Told ya so din I ?"

"Oh hush and hurry up, I want to see the horses."


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh no you don't, your papi told me to make sure you don't go doin none a dat boy stuff here, least not til after de weddin, somethin bout den you be off his hands and yo foolery will be yo husband's headache and not his."

"We'll my daddy ain't here so who's to tell him?"

"I will, now you settle down and behave and don't go making yo mama look bad in front a dese fine folk."

"Sm I wish you would stop speaking like a crackpot,ever since we crossed into the west you've been acting like a hayseed."

"Well we's gon be livin in dese here parts from now on so we might as well."

I rolled my eyes at his incorrigibleness.


	6. Chapter 6

Sam had been my farther's valet before I was born, as the story goes the day I came into the world Sam decided that there was no one on God's green earth who could take better care of me than him. From that day until this he's been my sole caretaker, the joke in the family was that mama always double checked with Sam before making any decisions pertaining to me.

He's a bossy, annoying old coot who's worse than two fathers, he watches everything I do and corrects my every mistake, he's my staunchest defender and my biggest critic but let anyone else say one wrong word against me and my Sam would flatten them but good.


	7. Chapter 7

Why he decided that we had to act like hayseeds because we were moving west was beyond me, I had no intentions of acting like a muddle headed nitwit just because my parents decided to ship me off to this uncivilized hole at the end of the earth.

Geez, you shoot the pants off of one overzealous beau and it's the end of your world as you know it. Stupid boys.

"If that Jacob Black hadn't tried getting fresh with me I wouldn't have shot him in the nether regions, why am I the one being punished I ask you, it's just not fair."

"You're not being punished, you're getting hitched to a fine young man from an upstanding lineage."

"Young my kaboose, he's thirty two years old, positively ancient."

"Thirty two is not ancient, it's just the right age for a man to be taking a bride."

"I liked it better when you sounded like a jackrabbit, I'll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself if you can't agree with me."

"Shoulda taken the switch to your backside more often, you're just plum mean."

"You did that plenty Sam, until I started hitting back."

We both got a laugh out of that, the last time anyone switched me was the day I brained mama with a candlestick for punishing me wrongfully, I was all of five at the time and that Lauren Mallory had fibbed and got me into trouble.

Daddy had made it a rule that no one was to discipline me but him after that, I liked his discipline, it usually involved me getting candy and sitting in his office doodling. Until this last time, boy was he steamed at me for shooting Jacob. Served him right the jackass.


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry to have been gone chickies but the powers that be gave me a boot to the a** and promises of more to come so I jetted, regrouped and now I'm back because I gives less than a frack, for anyone who is interested I took the offensive Cullen's Crew and published it on amazon as Lyon's Crew under the pseudonym Jordan Silver because my haters told me I couldn't, if you want it cool if you don't that's cool too do you butterflies **

"And why pray tell is thirty two the right age for a man to be settling down?"

"Means he's done all the living he needs to and is ready to settle down and start a family."

"What's that supposed to mean, done all the living, that mean I'm marrying a dead man?"

"Don't you sass me missy, you know good and well what I mean, now you just remember this husband a your'n ain't like those young fools who been hanging around you back home, dem was boys dis here's a real man and he's not likely to out up wid your harridan ways so you member to watch yo manners.

"Harridan, HARRIDAN, well I never."

"Uhm, hmm, look here I think dis might be your young man coming to meet us now."

"It's about bloody time." Old Sam rolled his eyes and glared at me but I ignored him I was just in the right frame of mind to give this English fop a piece of my mind, probably one of those prissy mama's boys.


	9. Chapter 9

There was a lone rider coming up the incline towards us, dust flying every which way behind him. From this distance I couldn't tell much about the mystery man other than that he looked tall in the saddle, then again every male over the age of twelve was taller than I was. His hat hid his face from view not to mention the blazing sun added a hazy film over everything. The horse though, now that was a thing of beauty, all black with nary a speck of any other color anywhere on his body, rare indeed, no white stripe down the nose, just jet black with a sheen that was hard to miss.

He was before us in a matter of minutes as Sam got the old dray horse under control, he was a persnickety thing when in the presence of other horseflesh.

"Well a good afternoon to you, you must be Ms. Isabella and Sam."

"Well shoot, nobody told me he was a nabob."


	10. Chapter 10

If Sam could've knocked me into next week he would've, as it stood the eye roll and grim look spoke volumes.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, uh, yes, I'm Isabella Swan." It hadn't been exactly polite to say what I had, it's just that my parents had neglected to to tell me that my husband was an English stuff shirt who spoke as though he came from Buckingham bloody palace.

"Edward Cullen at your service."

I folded my arms on my lap as he walked the horse in pace with the laden down wagon. I still couldn't see his face since he wore his hat pulled down low on his face, there was just a hint of facial hair on his lower face discernible.

"My apologies for not meeting you at the station but it's calving season here and we're rather busy as you can imagine."

"It's quite alright I understand." My foot, I thought it was highly uncouth that the man couldn't be bothered to meet his new bride and escort to her new home, just goes to show, here he is with his high falluting speech and his obvious wealth with the manners of a saloon rat.

"So how was your trip, uneventful I hope, you didn't run into any trouble I assume?" There he goes with that snooty accent again.

"No sir Mr. Cullen, everything went off without a hitch..." Traitor, now he speaks like he had some sense after subjecting me to days of that hick drivel, I'll show them.

"Is it always this bloody hot here, great Jehoshaphat I'm sweating like a whore in a church house."

Take that English, your new wife isn't about to be putting on any ears you take me as I am or go spit.


	11. Chapter 11

I couldn't miss the elbow to the knee I got from Sam that time and if I wasn't mistaken there was a slight smile on Edward Cullen's face.

EPOV

Well, well, well, the little yank has spirit does she, good, at least I know I won't die of boredom being shackled to a simpering nitwit like the ones I'd met back east when I'd first visited the Americas as a lad. The very thought had given me nightmares for weeks after I'd learned of my father's disgusting plans. Bartered off to his old friend at the age of eighteen without my knowledge. Good old dad already had an heir my older brother Emmett, but he couldn't stand for his second son to go bare handed or die in some senseless war, so he'd bought up thousands of acres in the American west and decided that I would start my own dynasty.

Of course he'd never mentioned a word of this to me until I was twenty five and smack dab in the middle of sowing my oats; my parents had already travelled here and started the overseeing of things to come.

It was some three years later that I learned of the betrothal to the daughter of a friend, at the time my bride was all of sixteen to my twenty eight, to say I was angry is an understatement, but in the end there was no denying dad. Not because I needed his financial support or anything like that, I'd made plenty on my own with my shipping business, but because the man was such a fine father he commanded respect.

So here I am for the past two years doing something as foreign to me as giving birth, and surprisingly loving it. That's the things about my father the great Carlisle Cullen, he always has a way of knowing. Let's hope that knowledge extends to his choice of bride.


	12. Chapter 12

EPOV

****

She's finally here; the wife I've been making all of this happen for, the girl I've never lain eyes on before today. It still remains to be seen how well we'll get along together; this is a hard life out here in the wilds of a young nation; no fit place for a gently bred young woman but a man needs a wife and children. I'm one of the lucky ones I can afford to pay hands to help out around here so I won't need to work my wife to death like so many others have and still do.

"You'll get use to the heat eventually lady Isabella not to worry." I chanced a glance at her, with that wide brimmed hat covering most of her face it was hard to decipher her features, her wrists from what little I could see were slender and her frame petite; she was a little bit of a thing to have such a mouth on her, at least she had spirit.

"So tell me Mr. Edward Cullen, didn't they have any favorable women in good old England for you to marry or did you run through them all and decide you might as well start on this side of the pond? I'll have you know right this minute I won't be putting up with any shenanigans and I know my way around a pistol."

She nodded her head for emphasis after that long winded diatribe.

"Tell me lady Isabella." I stressed the word lady so she'd know I was using it lightly, for which I earned a scowl.

"Are you always this ornery or is it the heat that's turned you into a shrew?"

Sam cackled hard enough to scare some crows into flight while my delightful missus turned her full glare on me.

Well now, dad might've saddled me with a viper tongued chit but at least she was a beauty. A man could overlook a lot of things for a face like that. I'm sure the smile I sent her way threw her off a little. Suddenly I felt lighter than I had since I got the missive saying that she was on her way. Things were surely looking up; for a minute there I thought dad had missed one; but no, that first real glimpse showed he to be a beauty. Beauty and sass, what a combination, it was sure going to be fun taming all that fire in my bed.


	13. Chapter 13

BPOV

I wonder what the hell he's smiling at like that, I hope he's not touched in the head like old Billy Black. If he was fuzzy in the head all bets were off; I'm no nursemaid to be saddled with a demented old coot. Okay he didn't seem that old after all, and from what little I could see of him he wasn't too unfavorable to look at...

"To answer your question..."

"What question?" He'd pulled me out of my thoughts; I could've sworn he rolled his eyes under the brim of his hat.

"The one you asked about my choice of bride, my father arranged my marriage same as yours did."

"Oh, I see, they sold you too huh!"

Sam was back to trying to knock me off the carriage, why else would he be jabbing me with his elbow? I don't think Edward liked my conclusion either if the dark look that came across his face was anything to go by.

"I don't consider myself to be sold do you?"

"Well spit, what else would you call it, I had no say in the matter none whatsoever; nobody asked my opinion, two old goats got together and signed some sort of agreement and who knows what changed hands and here I am, sold."

I don't know what possessed me but I just had the need to goad him with his high and mighty speech and that smarmy smile.

"If you don't mind me saying Mr. Edward sir, I think you should ignore her for the time being; she always gets crotchety when she's hungry or over tired. A nice bath( or a dunk in an ice cold well head first)" he mumbled that part for my ears only, "and a hot meal and she'd be right as rain."

"I'm not a pet and I'll have you know I'm neither ornery nor shrewish how dare you, what I am is incensed that I've been saddled with someone with the manners of a dock hand. How dare you not meet me at the depot like any decent body would. I think we need to rethink this marriage thing or at least give ourselves some time to decide if we suit."

Okay therein lies the crux of the matter; this marriage thing when it was just a thought was all fine and well but now I'm here and he's here and, okay I'm scared alright. I don't have my mama here with me and that speech she gave me before we left was hurried and rushed and full of nonsense that only confused the devil out of me anyway. It's all that Jacob's fault, if he hadn't been such a persistent nuisance I wouldn't have had to shoot him and my dad wouldn't have got it onto his head that it was time to seal the deal so to speak.

"We'll be married as soon as the preacher gets here which should be anytime soon; it won't be proper for you to sleep under my roof unless we are man and wife, there's no suitable chaperone here."

"Then I'll sleep outside in the carriage."

"No Isabella, you won't." He have me one of those I mean business looks. I know that look well, dad always wears one when I'm being a particular bother to him. We'll just see about this.


	14. Chapter 14

BPOV

We'd finally made it to where I could see the lay of the land better so to speak. Sam and Edward (I better get used to his name instead of thinking of him as the bloody nabob in my head) were discussing horseflesh and ranch life. Sam I was happy to see had reverted back to his senses and spoke like he had more than two teeth in his head. Wait until I wrote mother and told her about his behavior on the way here, she'd be scandalized and I liked nothing better than scandalizing her.

I kept taking little peeks at this Cullen to see what I could see but that blasted hat was in my way, hadn't anyone ever told him it was impolite to wear a hat in the presence of a lady?

"Mr. Cullen."

"Edward."

He corrected me.

"Uh huh, who all lives in this great big monstrosity and more importantly do you have servants? I've heard about these backwoods places where the women are worked into the ground let's get one thing straight right now mister, I don't know the first thing about women's work and don't want to."

"Isabella Marie...humph..." Sam shook his head and looked put upon; whatever, I'm not happy about any of this and I don't see why I have to pretend to be. I was perfectly fine where I was thank you very much, now I'll be stuck here in this hellhole for the rest of my born days. Somebody was gonna pay.

Edward took his hat off and wiped his brow with his forearm before turning to me.

"Well spit."


End file.
